Long Island Sound – November 17, 1958

On November 17, 1958, a four-passenger Piper aircraft left New York’s La Guardia Airport, (Now J.F.K. Airport) on a return trip to North Central Airport in Smithfield, Rhode Island. The aircraft was piloted by Albino Beltrami, 36, of Providence. His passengers, George W. Horton, 49, of Cumberland, R.I., and Eugene Sullivan, 50, of Shrewsbury, Mass., were in the aluminum manufacturing business, and had been in New York on business. Somewhere over Long Island Sound the plane disappeared.

No distress call had been received, and it was surmised that whatever had happened, had been quick. Residents along the Connecticut shore in the area of Madison, Connecticut, reported hearing a low flying plane and then an explosion the night the plane went missing.

Three days later a hat believed to belong to Mr. Horton washed up on Hammonasset State Park Beach in Madison. A friend of Horton’s stated he was “reasonably certain” that the hat was one the missing man had bought a few days earlier due to the certain way Horton was known to crease his hats.

On November 21st, a tobacco pouch washed ashore at Madison, and was positively identified as belonging to the pilot of the missing plane.

A large scale search was concentrated in that area involving Coast Guard and Civil Air Patrol personnel, but nothing further was found.

On April 28, 1960, a lobster fisherman was dragging for bait off Meig’s Point at Hammonasset Park when his net snagged on the missing airplane in 58 feet of water. A month later divers confirmed it was the missing Piper with the remains of three men aboard.

Sources:

Providence Journal, “Hat Found On beach Linked To Lost Plane” November 20, 1958, Pg.1